Interview: Cora Carmack, author of 'Losing It'

Cora Carmack is riding the wave of a new genre: new adult. What's so different about new adult books? Well, they're kinda like young adult books but … older. Cora explains it very well here. Her e-book release, Losing It, has been picked up by HarperCollins in a three-book deal. She joins us now to introduce us to the "new adult" trend and talk about her theater background and awkward moments, the bane of every middle-schooler's existence.

Joyce: Welcome to HEA, Cora! You've said, "Young adult books are about surviving adolescence and coming of age. New adult is about how to live your life after that. New adult is the 'I'm officially an adult, now what?' phase." Can you expand on that a little? Are new adult books still appropriate for the young adult crowd?

Cora: I'd be happy to expand! New adult doesn't necessarily deal with any topics that haven't been written about before, but we live in an age where we want to find the things that interest us quickly and without much hassle. Until now, finding a book about a college-age protagonist has involved a time-consuming search. New adult is a way to showcase books about twentysomethings so that those twentysomething readers can find them easily. The subject matter of the books can vary widely, but I think the common theme is that it centers around a character perched between the teenage years and adulthood. It's about firsts — first year away from home, first jobs, first time living out of your family's shadow.

I definitely do think new adult books are still appropriate for the YA crowd. After all, it's been proven that kids read up, or read about characters slightly older than them. Perhaps it's a way to prepare for the next stage of life, and books tend to be more honest than parents and teachers. When I was a teenager, I jumped straight from YA books to adult books, and reading about someone in her 30s with an established career just wasn't of interest to me, so I went back to reading YA. I wish it had been easier then to find books about college-age protagonists. But for the most part, I think new adult is geared toward a market of twentysomethings who still enjoy aspects of YA fiction, but have started to grow out of it. NA tends to be a little more adult in terms of content.

Joyce: Does "new adult" mean there's more sex in the books?

Cora: I think it can and often does mean that. I think NA books are more adult in every way, not just sex. The character's mind-sets are more adult, their actions are more adult, and the consequences of their actions are more adult. YA books are notorious for finding ways to get rid of the parents (death, boarding school, absentee parents, etc.) so that the teenagers can go about their lives without much adult interference. NA doesn't have that problem (thank goodness).

Joyce: You've worked in theater — doing what?

Cora: Well, I was a theater major in college like the main character in Losing It. After college, I moved to the Northeast and did a little bit of everything. I worked on the administrative side of the theater business in marketing, artistic, development, and other areas. I also did some work backstage both during productions and pre-production (working on sets, lights, etc.). Then I've done my share of auditioning and acting, too. Eventually, though, that lifestyle became too demanding of my time (and gave me very little chance to write), so I moved my career in a different direction. I loved my work in theater, but it was the right decision for me at that time.

Joyce: In your author bio on your website you say, "I enjoy placing my characters in the most awkward situations possible, and then trying to help them get a boyfriend out of it." Have you ever gotten a boyfriend out of an awkward situation?

Cora: Oh, gosh, there have been lots of awkward situations revolving around my dating history. My first serious (and I use that term loosely) boyfriend was in eight grade and is probably the most awkward of them all. I'd had a crush on this one boy for ages, but was pretty sure he had no interest in me. He flirted all the time, but we'd been doing that for a long time and it had never gone anywhere, so when his best friend asked me out, I went for it. As it turns out, the first guy was about to ask me out, and his best friend went behind his back and beat him to it. So I found myself accidentally in the middle of a fight between two boys. The guys decided that the best way to make me choose between them was for both of them to eat lunch with me, one sitting on each side. Every day. Yeah. I remember sitting at my lunch table violently stabbing my burrito because the awkward silence was the most silent of all awkward silences. In the end, I told both of them I wasn't interested.

(I'd like to say that was the end of it, and that the story ends with me being the awesome independent woman, but I was in eighth grade! So, I think two weeks after that I ended up dating my original crush.)

Joyce: Ah, middle school. Gotta love those awkward memories! Please tell us about Losing It.

Cora:Losing It is about a girl named Bliss, who is a senior in college. She's about to graduate and head out into a world that is scary and uncertain and completely outside her control. She's also a virgin, pretty much the only one left that she knows. But she thinks that problem might be within her power to solve. So, she goes to a bar with a friend determined to lose her v-card in a one-night stand. Spoiler alert: She doesn't. In fact, the whole experience takes a rather awkward and mortifying turn, which only becomes more disastrous when she learns the identity of her almost one-nighter.

Joyce: Can you take us through the journey of self-published Losing It to traditionally published Losing It?

Cora: What a journey it has been! I made the decision to self-publish Losing It in mid-September (roughly a month before I ended up publishing). I'd originally been planning to go the more traditional route — agent, submissions to publishers, traditional contract (hopefully). But … I was very familiar with the market and how books deemed "new adult" were doing. The fact was most new adult books were either bought by small independent or e-pub presses or they were self-published. Larger publishers just weren't buying them … UNLESS they were self-published books that had already proven their capacity for success.

So, I decided to take a chance and go it alone. Luckily, I didn't actually have to go it completely alone. I'm blessed to call several amazing book bloggers my close friends, and they helped to get the word out about Losing It. The cover reveal was the first big event, and roughly 50 blogs participated, and got the online book world buzzing about my story. With the help of those blogger friends, we also organized a three-week blog tour that started a day or two before the book released. Those bloggers wrote amazing reviews (for which I'm very thankful) and hosted giveaways, interviews with me and with characters from the book, guest posts, and other fun extras. The book went live on Oct. 14 and hit No. 1 on the Barnes & Noble best-seller list a little over 24 hours later. Within four days, it sold 5,000 copies. By 12 days, it sold 32,000. I started getting e-mails from agents and publishers and foreign publishers within the first three days.

It had been my hope, of course, that self-publishing would lead to the traditional book deal I'd wanted, but I had never thought things would happen so quickly. I talked with several amazing literary agents, and ended up signing with the awesome Suzie Townsend of New Leaf Literary and Media. A few weeks later, we accepted a deal from HarperCollins, and I couldn't be happier.

I think self-publishing is a wonderful option that gives more authors a chance to share their work. I know it's been a wonderful way to increase exposure for new adult books, and I've read some truly amazing books and made a number of fabulous friends through the process.

Joyce: What can readers expect to see from you next and when?

Cora: Well, next up is the paperback release of Losing It, though I don't have an exact date for you yet. Readers can stay tuned to my blog and other social-media accounts for updates on this. I'm also working on a companion novel about Cade, one of the secondary characters featured in Losing It, to be released sometime in 2013. Readers can expect another romance with a side of awkward goodness.

Joyce: Is there anything you'd like to add?

Cora: I'd just like to say thanks for having me! I'm happy to be among the great company of talented authors featured here at HEA.

Joyce: You are most welcome, Cora! Good luck with everything!

To find out more about Cora and her books, you can visit her blog.